Six police personnel were killed and 11 others injured after their vehicle rammed into a tree near Lohari village, about 10 km from Fatehgarh Sahib town, on the Sanghol-Bassi Pathana road on Monday morning.
The cops, posted at Khamano police station in Fatehgarh Sahib district, were on their way to attend the police parade at the police lines when the mishap occurred around 6:30am. The police vehicle (Mahindra Scorpio) spun out of control after being hit by an unidentified vehicle and crashed into a roadside tree. The driver of the other vehicle sped away from the spot.
The deceased were identified as head constable Manjinder Singh (37) of Batala (Gurdaspur district), constable Amandeep Singh (24) of Mari Panuia village (Gurdaspur district) constable Gurpreet Singh (23) of Sidhupur Kalan village (Fatehgarh Sahib district), woman constable Raj Kaur (20) of Panjkoha village (Fatehgarh Sahib district), constable Kesar Singh (45) of Khamano (Fatehgarh Sahib district) and Punjab Home Guard jawan Varinder Partap (40) of Khamano (Fatehgarh Sahib district).
The injured include Punjab Home Guard jawan Sukhdev Singh, who was in the driver’s seat, constables Sukhbir Singh (Baronga village, Fatehgarh Sahib district), Sukhbir Singh (Amrala village, Fatehgarh Sahib district), Sukhbir Singh (Amrali village, Rupnagar district), Raman Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Inderjit Singh, women constables Pawandeep Kaur and Amandeep Kaur, who were admitted to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Constable Kuldeep Singh was admitted to Fortis Hospital, SAS Nagar, while woman constable Jaspreet Kaur was taken to the Fatehgarh Sahib civil hospital.
{{/usCountry}}The injured include Punjab Home Guard jawan Sukhdev Singh, who was in the driver’s seat, constables Sukhbir Singh (Baronga village, Fatehgarh Sahib district), Sukhbir Singh (Amrala village, Fatehgarh Sahib district), Sukhbir Singh (Amrali village, Rupnagar district), Raman Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Inderjit Singh, women constables Pawandeep Kaur and Amandeep Kaur, who were admitted to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Constable Kuldeep Singh was admitted to Fortis Hospital, SAS Nagar, while woman constable Jaspreet Kaur was taken to the Fatehgarh Sahib civil hospital.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal expressed shock and grief over the tragedy. Directing the district civil and police administrations to provide logistic support to families of the victims and medical treatment to the injured, the CM and deputy CM assured that the state government would provide all help to the families.
Jalandhar range inspector general (IG) Gurpreet Deo, Ludhiana range deputy inspector general (DIG) MF Farooqui, Fatehgarh Sahib deputy commissioner Yashvir Mahajan, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Hardial Singh Mann and Bassi Pathana MLA Nirmal Singh visited the spot.
The Bassi Pathana police have registered a case on the charges of rash driving and causing death by negligence under sections 279, 304-A, 337, 338 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).